Her infinite variety - eNotes Shakespeare Quotes Her infinite variety Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies. . . . Read on Owl Eyes This eText is now on Owl Eyes. Clicking this link will open a new window. Marc Antony, in a bid to make peace with his fellow triumvir Caesar Augustus, has agreed to marry Caesar's sister. Caesar's friend Maecenas concludes that Antony will now have to give up his infamous affair with Cleopatra, the queen of Egypt, but Enobarbus replies that this is impossible. Unlike other women, he claims, Cleopatra can never grow "stale" with "custom" (familiarity); her charms never fade, they only, in their infinite variety, grow more compelling with time. Enobarbus turns out to be correct; though Antony might sincerely intend to break with Cleopatra, her hold on him overwhelms all considerations of state, and soon he returns to her. Enobarbus's paean to Cleopatra's erotic power recalls Hamlet's description of how his father enthralled his mother.

"Why, she would hang on him," he recalls, "As if increase of appetite had grown/ By what it fed on" ( Hamlet , Act 1, scene 2). But Hamlet makes no claims to his father's "infinite variety." Variety, allegedly a hallmark of the female nature, was often feared and derided; women's changefulness threatened wooers and husbands alike. In Cleopatra, however, variety becomes a species of excitement, a power to hold on to a lover by keeping love fresh. SparkNotes: Antony and Cleopatra: Act I, scenes iv–v; Act II, scenes i–ii Act I, scenes iv–v; Act II, scenes i–ii Act I, scenes iv–v; Act II, scenes i–ii → Act I, scenes i–iii Act I, scenes iv–v; Act II, scenes i–ii, page 2 page 1 of 2 No way excuse his foils when we do bear So great weight in his lightness.

(See Important Quotations Explained ) Summary: Act I, scene iv In Rome, young Octavius Caesar complains to Lepidus, the third triumvir, that Antony has abandoned his responsibilities as a statesman and, in doing so, has also abandoned the better part of his manhood. Lepidus attempts to defend Antony, suggesting that Antony’s weaknesses for fishing, drinking, and reveling are traits he inherited rather than ones he has chosen. Caesar remains unconvinced, declaring that Antony has no business enjoying himself in Egypt during a time of crisis. A messenger arrives with news that Pompey’s forces are both gathering strength and finding support among those whose prior allegiance to Caesar arose from fear, not duty. Remembering Antony’s valiant and unparalleled performance as a soldier, Caesar laments that Antony is not with them. He and Lepidus agree to raise an army against Pompey. Summary: Act I, scene v Cleopatra complains to Charmian that she misses Antony. She wonders what he is doing and whether he, in turn, is thinking of her. Alexas enters and presents her with a gift from Antony: a pearl.

He tells the queen that Antony kissed the gemstone upon leaving Egypt and ordered it be delivered to Cleopatra as a token of his love. Cleopatra asks if he appeared sad or happy, and she rejoices when Alexas responds that Antony seemed neither: to appear sad, Cleopatra says, might have contaminated the moods of his followers, while a happy countenance could have jeopardized his followers’ belief in his resolve. Cleopatra orders Alexas to prepare twenty messengers, so that she can write to Antony on each day of his absence. She promises, if need be, to “unpeople Egypt” by turning all of its citizens into messengers (I.v.77). Summary: Act II, scene i Pompey discusses the military situation with his lieutenants, Menecrates and Menas. He feels confident of victory against the triumvirs not only because he controls the sea and is popular with the Roman people, but also because he believes that Antony, the greatest threat to his power, is still in Egypt. Menas reports that Caesar and Lepidus have raised an army, and another soldier, Varrius, arrives to tell them that Antony has come to Rome.

Menas expresses his hope that Caesar and Antony’s mutual enmity will give rise to a battle between the two triumvirs, but Pompey predicts that the two will come together in order to fend off a common enemy. Summary: Act II, scene ii Lepidus tells Enobarbus that Antony should use “soft and gentle speech” when speaking to Caesar (II.ii.3). Enobarbus answers that Antony will speak as plainly and honestly as any great man should. Antony and Caesar enter with their attendants and sit down to talk. Caesar complains of the rebellion that Fulvia and Antony’s brother raised against him. He asks why Antony dismissed his messengers in Alexandria and accuses Antony of failing in his obligation to provide military aid to the other triumvirs. Antony defends himself, and Maecenas, one of Caesar’s companions, suggests that they put aside their bickering in order to face Pompey. Agrippa, another of Caesar’s men, suggests that Antony marry Caesar’s sister, Octavia. This bond, he claims, would cement the men’s affection for and alliance with one another. Antony consents.

Caesar and Antony shake hands, promising brotherly love, and they agree to march together toward Pompey’s stronghold on Mount Misenum. When the triumvirs disperse, Enobarbus tells Agrippa of the good life they lived in Egypt. He describes how Cleopatra first came to meet Antony, comparing the queen to Venus, the goddess of love. Antony, he maintains, will never be able to leave her, despite his marriage to Octavia. Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies. (See Important Quotations Explained ) Analysis: Act I, scenes iv–v; Act II, scenes i–ii Unlike Shakespeare’s other great tragedies, Antony and Cleopatra is not confined to a single geographical location. Whereas Macbeth unfolds in Scotland and Hamlet in Denmark’s Elsinore castle, Antony and Cleopatra takes the audience from one end of the Mediterranean Sea to the other in the course of a scene change. This technique is noteworthy for several reasons.

First, it shows the global concerns of the play: traveling from Alexandria to Athens to Rome to Syria demonstrates the scope of the empire for which Antony, Cleopatra, and Caesar struggle. Second, the use of rapidly shifting locales shows that Shakespeare has become less interested in the deep psychological recesses that he examines in his greatest tragedies and is now addressing more public concerns. A stylistic result of Shakespeare’s interest in the broader world is that Antony and Cleopatra lacks soliloquies, a device that Shakespeare elsewhere uses to reveal his characters’ hidden thoughts to the audience. 1 Antony and Cleopatra. Act II. Scene II. William Shakespeare. 1914. The Oxford Shakespeare Enter CÆSAR, MECÆNAS, and AGRIPPA. Ant. If we compose well here, to Parthia: Hark ye, Ventidius. Cæs. I do not know, Mecænas; ask Agrippa. That which combind us was most great, and let not A leaner action rend us.

Whats amiss, May it be gently heard; when we debate Our trivial difference loud, we do commit Murder in healing wounds; then, noble partners, The rather for I earnestly beseech, Touch you the sourest points with sweetest terms, Nor curstness grow to the matter. Ant. Tis spoken well. Were we before our armies, and to fight, I should do thus. Or being, concern you not. Cæs. I must be laughd at If, or for nothing or a little, I Should say myself offended, and with you Chiefly i the world; more laughd at that I should Once name you derogately, when to sound your name It not concernd me. Ant. My being in Egypt, Cæsar, What was t to you? Cæs. No more than my residing here at Rome Might be to you in Egypt; yet, if you there Did practise on my state, your being in Egypt Might be my question. Ant. How intend you, practisd? Cæs. You may be pleasd to catch at mine intent By what did here befall me.

Your wife and brother Made wars upon me, and their contestation Was theme for you, you were the word of war. Ant. You do mistake your business; my brother never Did urge me in his act: I did inquire it; And have my learning from some true reports, That drew their swords with you. Did he not rather Discredit my authority with yours, And make the wars alike against my stomach, Having alike your cause? Of this my letters Before did satisfy you. If youll patch a quarrel, As matter whole you n have to make it with, It must not be with this. Cæs. You praise yourself You patchd up your excuses. Ant. Not so, not so; I know you could not lack, I am certain on t, Very necessity of this thought, that I, Your partner in the cause gainst which he fought, Could not with graceful eyes attend those wars Which fronted mine own peace. As for my wife, I would you had her spirit in such another: The third o the world is yours, which with a snaffle You may pace easy, but not such a wife. Eno.

Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women! Ant. So much uncurbable, her garboils, Cæsar, Made out of her impatience,which not wanted Shrewdness of policy too,I grieving grant Did you too much disquiet; for that you must But say I could not help it. Cæs. I wrote to you When rioting in Alexandria; you Did pocket up my letters, and with taunts Did gibe my missive out of audience. Supposing that I lackd it. But on, Cæsar; The article of my oath. Cæs. To lend me arms and aid when I requird them, The which you both denied. Ant. Neglected, rather; And then, when poisond hours had bound me up From mine own knowledge. As nearly as I may, Ill play the penitent to you; but mine honesty Shall not make poor my greatness, nor my power Work without it.

Truth is, that Fulvia, To have me out of Egypt, made wars here; For which myself, the ignorant motive, do So far ask pardon as befits mine honour To stoop in such a case. Lep. Tis noble spoken. Mec. If it might please you, to enforce no further The griefs between ye: to forget them quite Were to remember that the present need Speaks to atone you. Eno. Or, if you borrow one anothers love for the instant, you may, when you hear no more words of Pompey, return it again: you shall have time to wrangle in when you have nothing else to do. Ant. Thou art a soldier only; speak no more. Eno. That truth should be silent I had almost forgot. Ant. You wrong this presence; therefore speak no more. Eno. Go to, then; your considerate stone. Cæs. I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech; for it cannot be We shall remain in friendship, our conditions So differing in their acts. Yet, if I knew What hoop should hold us stanch, from edge to edge O the world I would pursue it.

Agr. Give me leave, Cæsar. Cæs. Speak, Agrippa. Agr. Thou hast a sister by the mothers side, Admird Octavia; great Mark Antony Agr. To hold you in perpetual amity, To make you brothers, and to knit your hearts With an unslipping knot, take Antony Octavia to his wife; whose beauty claims No worse a husband than the best of men, Whose virtue and whose general graces speak That which none else can utter. By this marriage, All little jealousies which now seem great, And all great fears which now import their dangers, Would then be nothing; truths would be but tales Where now half tales be truths; her love to both Would each to other and all loves to both Draw after her. Pardon what I have spoke, For tis a studied, not a present thought, Ant. I did not think to draw my sword gainst Pompey, For he hath laid strange courtesies and great Of late upon me; I must thank him only, Lost my remembrance suffer ill report; At heel of that, defy him. Lep.

Time calls upon s: Of us must Pompey presently be sought, Or else he seeks out us. Ant. Where lies he? Cæs. About the Mount Misenum. Ant. Whats his strength By land? Cæs. Great and increasing; but by sea He is an absolute master. Ant. So is the fame. Would we had spoke together! Haste we for it; Yet, ere we put ourselves in arms, dispatch we The business we have talkd of. Cæs. With most gladness; And do invite you to my sisters view, Whither straight Ill lead you. Ant. Let us, Lepidus, Not sickness should detain me. [Flourish. Exeunt CÆSAR, ANTONY, and LEPIDUS. Mec. Welcome from Egypt, sir. Eno. Half the heart of Cæsar, worthy Mecænas! My honourable friend, Agrippa! Agr. Good Enobarbus! Mec. We have cause to be glad that matters are so well digested. You stayed well by t in Egypt. Eno.

Ay, sir; we did sleep day out of countenance, and made the night light with drinking. Mec. Eight wild boars roasted whole at a breakfast, and but twelve persons there; is this true? Eno. This was but as a fly by an eagle; we had much more monstrous matter of feast, which worthily deserved noting. Mec. Shes a most triumphant lady, if report be square to her. Eno. When she first met Mark Antony she pursed up his heart, upon the river of Cydnus. Agr. There she appeared indeed, or my reporter devised well for her. Eno. I will tell you. The barge she sat in, like a burnishd throne, Burnd on the water; the poop was beaten gold, Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that The winds were love-sick with them, the oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes.

For her own person, It beggard all description; she did lie In her pavilion,cloth-of-gold of tissue, Oer-picturing that Venus where we see The fancy outwork nature; on each side her Stood pretty-dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With divers-colourd fans, whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid did. Agr. O! rare for Antony. Eno. Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i the eyes, And made their bends adornings; at the helm A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands, That yarely frame the office. From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her, and Antony, Enthrond i the market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too And made a gap in nature. Agr. Rare Egyptian! Eno.

Upon her landing, Antony sent to her, Invited her to supper; she replied It should be better he became her guest, Which she entreated. Our courteous Antony, Whom neer the word of No woman heard speak, Being barberd ten times oer, goes to the feast, And, for his ordinary pays his heart For what his eyes eat only. She made great Cæsar lay his sword to bed; He ploughd her, and she croppd. Eno. I saw her once Hop forty paces through the public street; And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted That she did make defect perfection, And, breathless, power breathe forth. Mec. Now Antony must leave her utterly. Eno. Never; he will not: Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety; other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies; for vilest things Become themselves in her, that the holy priests Bless her when she is riggish. Mec. If beauty, wisdom, modesty, can settle The heart of Antony, Octavia is A blessed lottery to him. Agr.

Let us go. Good Enobarbus, make yourself my guest Whilst you abide here. Eno. Humbly, sir, I thank you. [Exeunt. Antony and Cleopatra - Wikiquote Antony and Cleopatra Jump to: navigation , search Eternity was in our lips and eyes. Antony and Cleopatra is a historical tragedy by William Shakespeare , originally printed in the First Folio of 1623. Most scholars believe it was written in 1606–07. Contents Nay, but this dotage of our general's O'erflows the measure. In nature's infinite book of secrecy A little I can read. Soothsayer, scene ii He was dispos'd to mirth; but on the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him. Eternity was in our lips and eyes. Cleopatra, scene iii This is the news: he fishes, drinks, and wastes The lamps of night in revel; is not more man-like Than Cleopatra; nor the queen of Ptolemy More womanly than he. Antony, leave thy lascivious wassails. Octavius Caesar, scene iv Give me to drink mandragora.

Cleopatra, scene v Where’s my serpent of old Nile? For so he calls me. Cleopatra, speaking of Antony, scene v I was A morsel for a monarch. Cleopatra, scene v When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then! Cleopatra, scene v Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety; other women cloy The appetites they feed; but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies… Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite. Pompey, scene i Small to greater matters must give way. Lepidus, scene ii What hoop should hold us staunch, from edge to edge O' the world I would pursue it. Octavius Caesar, scene ii The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burnt on the water; the poop was beaten gold; Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, It beggar'd all description.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety; other women cloy The appetites they feed; but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies: for vilest things Become themselves in her, that the holy priests Bless her when she is riggish. Enobarbus, scene ii I have not kept my square; but that to come Shall all be done by the rule. Antony, scene iii If thou dost play with him at any game, Thou art sure to lose; and, of that natural luck, He beats thee 'gainst the odds; thy lustre thickens When he shines by. Who does i’ the wars more than his captain can, Becomes his captain’s captain; and ambition, The soldier’s virtue, rather makes choice of loss, Than gain which darkens him. Ventidius, scene i I have eyes upon him, And his affairs come to me on the wind. Octavius Caesar, scene vi Beyond the mark of thought: and the high gods, To do you justice, make them ministers Of us and those that love you.

Octavius Caesar, scene vi Observe how Antony becomes his flaw Octavius Caesar, scene xii To the boy Caesar send this grizzled head, And he will fill thy wishes to the brim With principalities. Tell him, he wears the rose Of youth upon him. A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward Do draw the inward quality after them, To suffer all alike. Mine honesty and I begin to square. Enorbarbus, scene xiii Authority melts from me: of late, when I cried 'Ho!' Like boys unto a muss, kings would start forth, And cry 'Your will?' Have you no ears? I am Antony yet. You were half blasted ere I knew you Antony, scene xiii You have been a boggler ever. Antony, scene xiii Get thee back to Caesar, Tell him thy entertainment: look, thou say He makes me angry with him; for he seems Proud and disdainful, harping on what I am, Not what he knew I was: he makes me angry. Antony, scene xiii Is now eclipsed; and it portends alone The fall of Antony! Now I'll set my teeth, And send to darkness all that stop me.

Antony,, scene xiii I had thought to have held it poor: but, since my lord Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra. Cleopatra, scene xiii I'll make death love me; for I will contend Even with his pestilent scythe. Antony, scene xiii He calls me boy; and chides, as he had power To beat me out of Egypt; my messenger He hath whipp'd with rods; dares me to personal combat, Caesar to Antony: let the old ruffian know I have many other ways to die; meantime Laugh at his challenge. To business that we love we rise betime, And go to ’t with delight. Antony, scene iv This morning, like the spirit of a youth That means to be of note, begins betimes. Antony, scene iv The time of universal peace is near. Octavius Caesar, scene vi The shirt of Nessus is upon me. Antony, scene xii O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me, That life, a very rebel to my will, May hang no longer on me.

Enobarbus,, scene ix Let the world rank me in register A master-leaver and a fugitive: O Antony! O Antony! Charmain: Be comforted, dear madam. Cleopatra: No, I will not. All strange and terrible events are welcome, But comforts we despise; our size of sorrow, Proportion'd to our cause, must be as great. Scene xiii Antony: Sometime we see a cloud that’s dragonish; A vapour sometime like a bear or lion, A tower’d citadel, a pendent rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon ’t, that nod unto the world, And mock our eyes with air: thou hast seen these signs? They are black vesper's pageants. Enorbarbus: Ay, my lord. Antony: That which is now a horse, even with a thought The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct, As water is in water. Scene xiv The seven-fold shield of Ajax cannot keep The battery from my heart. O, cleave, my sides! Antony, scene xiv I have liv’d in such dishonour, that the gods Detest my baseness.

I am dying, Egypt, dying; only I here impórtune death a while, until Of many thousand kisses the poor last I lay upon thy lips. Antony, scene xv O, wither’d is the garland of the war! The soldier’s pole is fall'n; young boys and girls Are level now with men; the odds is gone, And there is nothing left remarkable Beneath the visiting moon. There was no winter in ’t; an autumn ’t was, That grew the more by reaping. Cleopatra, scene ii If there be, or ever were, one such, It’s past the size of dreaming. Cleopatra, scene ii With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers, shall Uplift us to the view; in their thick breath, Rank with gross diet, shall we be enclouded, And forc'd to drink their vapour. Cleopatra, scene ii Shall they hoist me up And show me to the shouting varletry Of censuring Rome? Rather a ditch in Egypt Be gentle grave unto me! rather on Nilus' mud Lay me stark naked, and let the water-flies Blow me into abhorring!

With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool, Be angry, and dispatch. O, couldst thou speak, That I might hear thee call great Caesar Ass Unpolicied! I am fire and air; my other elements I give to baser life. Cleopatra, scene ii Dost thou not see my baby at my breast, That sucks the nurse asleep? Cleopatra, scene ii As she would catch another Antony In her strong toil of grace. Octavius Caesar, scene ii She shall be buried by her Antony: No grave upon the earth shall clip in it A pair so famous. Famous Quotations from Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra Famous Quotations from Antony and Cleopatra The triple pillar of the world transformed Into a strumpet's fool. (1.1.13) There's beggary in the love that can be reckoned. (1.1.15) Let Rome in Tiber melt, and the wide arch Of the ranged empire fall. Here is my space.

Kingdoms are clay; our dungy earth alike Feeds beast as man; the nobleness of life Is to do thus; when such a mutual pair And such a twain can do't. (1.1.34) O excellent! I love long life better than figs. (1.2.35) On the sudden A Roman thought hath struck him. (1.2.91) The nature of bad news infects the teller. (1.2.104) I have seen her die twenty times upon far poorer moment. I do think there is mettle in death which commits some loving act upon her, she hath such a celerity in dying. (1.2.151) Indeed the tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow. (1.2.182) In time we hate that which we often fear. (1.3.13) Eternity was in our lips and eyes, Bliss in our brows bent. (1.3.36) O! my oblivion is a very Antony, And I am all forgotten.

(1.3.92) It hath been taught us from the primal state That he which is was wished until he were, And the ebbed man, ne'er loved till ne'er worth love, Comes deared by being lacked. This common body, Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream, Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide, To rot itself with motion. (1.4.42) Give me to drink mandragora. (1.5.4) O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! Do bravely, horse, for wot'st thou whom thou mov'st? The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm And burgonet of men. He's speaking now, Or murmuring 'Where's my serpent of old Nile?' (1.5.22) Think on me, That am with Phoebus' amorous pinches black, And wrinkled deep in time? (1.5.28) My salad days, When I was green in judgment, cold in blood, To say as I said then! (1.5.74) Epicurean cooks Sharpen with cloyless sauce his appetite.

(2.1.30) I do not much dislike the matter, but The manner of his speech. (2.2.118) The barge she sat in, like a burnished throne, Burned on the water; the poop was beaten gold, Purple the sails, and so perfumed, that The winds were love-sick with them, the oars were silver, Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made The water which they beat to follow faster, As amorous of their strokes. For her own person, It beggared all description; she did lie In her pavilion,--cloth-of-gold of tissue,-- O'er-picturing that Venus where we see The fancy outwork nature; on each side her Stood pretty-dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids, With divers-coloured fans, whose wind did seem To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool, And what they undid did.

(2.2.200) Her gentlewomen, like the Nereides, So many mermaids, tended her i' the eyes, And made their bends adornings; at the helm A seeming mermaid steers; the silken tackle Swell with the touches of those flower-soft hands, That yarely frame the office. From the barge A strange invisible perfume hits the sense Of the adjacent wharfs. The city cast Her people out upon her, and Antony, Enthroned i' the market-place, did sit alone, Whistling to the air; which, but for vacancy, Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra too And made a gap in nature. (2.2.215) I saw her once Hop forty paces through the public street; And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted That she did make defect perfection, And, breathless, power breathe forth. (2.2.237) Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. (2.2.244) I have not kept the square, but that to come Shall all be done by the rule.

(2.3.6) I' the east my pleasure lies. (2.3.41) Give me some music; music, moody food Of us that trade in love. (2.5.1) �T was merry when You wager�d on your angling; when your diver Did hang a salt-fish on his hook, which he With fervency drew up. (2.5.20) I laughed him out of patience; and that night I laughed him into patience: and next morn, Ere the ninth hour, I drunk him to his bed. (2.5.20) I will praise any man that will praise me. (2.6.89) Egypt, thou knew'st too well My heart was to thy rudder tied by th' strings, And thou shouldst tow me after. (3.9.57) He wears the rose Of youth upon him. (3.11.21) To let a fellow that will take rewards And say 'God quit you!' be familiar with My playfellow, your hand; this kingly seal And plighter of high hearts.

(3.11.124) Let's have one other gaudy night: call to me All my sad captains; fill our bowls once more; Let's mock the midnight bell. (3.1.184) Since my lord Is Antony again, I will be Cleopatra. (3.11.186) Men�s judgments are A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward Do draw the inward quality after them, To suffer all alike. (3.13.36) O sovereign mistress of true melancholy, The poisonous damp of night disponge upon me, That life, a very rebel to my will, May hang no longer on me. (4.9.13) The hearts That spanieled me at heels, to whom I gave Their wishes, do discandy, melt their sweets On blossoming Caesar. (4.10.34) The soul and body rive not more in parting Than greatness going off.

(4.11.6) Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish; A vapour sometime like a bear or lion, A towered citadel, a pendant rock, A forked mountain, or blue promontory With trees upon 't, that nod unto the world And mock our eyes with air: thou hast seen these signs; They are black vesper's pageants. (4.12.2) I will be A bridegroom in my death, and run into 't As to a lover's bed. (4.12.100) All strange and terrible events are welcome, But comforts we despise. (4.13.3) So it should be, that none but Antony Should conquer Antony. (4.13.14) I am dying, Egypt, dying; only I here importune death awhile, until Of many thousand kisses the poor last I lay upon thy lips.

(4.13.19) The miserable change now at my end Lament nor sorrow at; but please your thoughts In feeding them with those my former fortunes Wherein I lived, the greatest prince o' the world, The noblest; and do now not basely die, Not cowardly put off my helmet to My countryman; a Roman by a Roman Valiantly vanquished. (4.13.53) Let's do it after the high Roman fashion, And make death proud to take us. (4.13.87) My desolation does begin to make A better life. 'Tis paltry to be Caesar; Not being Fortune, he's but Fortune's knave, A minister of her will; and it is great To do that thing that ends all other deeds, Which shackles accidents, and bolts up change, Which sleeps, and never palates more the dug, The beggar's nurse and Caesar's.

(5.2.1) For his bounty, There was no winter in't; an autumn was That grew the more by reaping; his delights Were dolphin-like, they showed his back above The element they lived in; in his livery Walked crowns and crownets, realms and islands were As plates dropped from his pocket. (5.2.79) Mechanic slaves With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers. (5.2.252) Finish, good lady; the bright day is done, And we are for the dark. (5.2.193) Antony Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness I' the posture of a whore. (5.2.218) My resolution's placed, and I have nothing Of woman in me; now from head to foot I am marble-constant, now the fleeting moon No planet is of mine. (5.2.238) A very honest woman, but something given to lie. (5.2.252) I know that a woman is a dish for the gods, if the devil dress her not.

(5.2.276) Give me my robe, put on my crown; I have Immortal longings in me. (5.2.283) Husband, I come: Now to that name my courage prove my title! I am fire and air; my other elements I give to baser life. (5.2.290) Now boast thee, death, in thy possession lies A lass unparalleled. (5.2.318) As she would catch a second Antony In her strong toil of grace. (5.2.248) She hath pursued conclusions infinite Of easy ways to die. (5.2.357) ____________ SparkNotes: Antony and Cleopatra: Important Quotations Explained Important Quotations Explained Let’s grant it is not Amiss to tumble on the bed of Ptolemy, To give a kingdom for a mirth, to sit And keep the turn of tippling with a slave, To reel the streets at noon, and stand the buffet With knaves that smells of sweat.

Say this becomes him— As his composure must be rare indeed Whom these things cannot blemish—yet must Antony No way excuse his foils when we do bear So great a weight in his lightness. If he filled His vacancy with his voluptuousness, Full surfeits and the dryness of his bones Call on him for’t. But to confound such time That drums him from his sport, and speaks as loud As his own state and ours—’tis to be chid As we rate boys who, being mature in knowledge, Pawn their experience to the present pleasure, And so rebel to judgement. (I.iv.16–33) In Act I, scene iv, Caesar meets with Lepidus to discuss the threat that Pompey poses to the empire. Here, he chastises Antony for staying in Egypt, where he pursues pleasure at the expense of his duty to the state. Caesar’s speech is significant for two reasons. First, it defines the Western sensibilities against which Cleopatra’s Egypt is judged and by which Antony is ultimately measured. As Caesar dismisses Antony’s passion for Cleopatra as boyish irresponsibility, he asserts the Roman expectation of duty over pleasure, reason over emotion.

These competing worlds and worldviews provide the framework for understanding the coming clashes between Caesar and Antony, Antony and Cleopatra, and Cleopatra and Caesar. Second, Caesar’s speech to Lepidus is significant for its suggestion that the oppositional worlds delineated here are a result of perception. For example, just as our perception of Antony changes according to the perceptions of other characters—to Caesar he is negligent and mighty; to Cleopatra, noble and easily manipulated; to Enobarbus, worthy but misguided—so too our understanding of East and West depends upon the ways in which the characters perceive them. To Caesar, Alexandria is a den of iniquity where the noontime streets are filled with “knaves that smell of sweat.” But we should resist his understanding as the essential definition of the East; we need only refer to Cleopatra’s very similar description of a Roman street to realize that place, as much as character, in Antony and Cleopatra, is a quilt of competing perceptions: “[m]echanic slaves / With greasy aprons, rules, and hammers shall / Uplift us to the view” (V.ii.205–207). 2.

Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety. Other women cloy The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry Where most she satisfies. For vilest things Become themselves in her, that the holy priests Bless her when she is riggish. (II.ii.225–245) Enobarbus makes this speech, one of the most famous of the play. The lines before this oft-quoted passage begin with the description of Cleopatra floating down the Nile on her gilded barge. Enobarbus moves on to tell the men gathered on Pompey’s ship how Antony met Cleopatra. It seems that the general, particularly susceptible to the wants of women, fell under the queen’s spell immediately. Whatever power Antony had in relation to the queen, he surrenders it almost immediately—in fact, before the two even meet: “She replied / It should be better he became her guest,” and Antony, never having denied a woman’s wishes, agrees. In addition to demonstrating the queen’s power over Antony, this passage describes Cleopatra’s talent for performance.

Her performance in “the public street” makes “defect”—her inability to breathe—“perfection.” Whether sitting stately on her “burnished throne” (II.ii.197) or hopping “forty paces,” Cleopatra never loses her ability to quicken the breath of her onlookers or persuade the “holy priests” to bless what they would certainly, in others, condemn. 3. You take from me a great part of myself. Use me well in’t. Sister, prove such a wife As my thoughts make thee, and as my farthest bond Shall pass on thy aproof. Most noble Antony, Let not the piece of virtue which is set Betwixt us as the cement of our love To keep it builded, be the ram to batter The fortress of it; for better might we Have loved without this mean if on both parts This be not cherished. (III.ii.24–33) Following the advice that Agrippa offers him in Act II, scene ii, Caesar offers Antony his sister, Octavia, as a means of securing peace between them. This gesture attests to the power that men ascribe to women and female sexuality in this play.

What men consider the wrong kind of female sexuality—embodied proudly and openly by Cleopatra—stands as a threat to men, their reason, and sense of duty. What they consider the right kind, however, as represented by the modest “piece of virtue” Octavia, promises to be “the cement” of Caesar’s love for Antony. Caesar’s language, here, is particularly important: the words he chooses to describe Antony’s union to Octavia and, by extension, his reunion with Caesar, belong to the vocabulary of builders: “the cement of our love / To keep it builded, be the ram to batter / The fortress of it” (emphasis added). This language makes an explicit connection between the private realm of love and the public realm of the state, a connection that causes Caesar more than a little anxiety throughout the play. 4. Yet cannot hold this visible shape, my knave. I made these wars for Egypt, and the Queen— Whose heart I thought I had, for she had mine, Which whilst it was mine had annexed unto’t A million more, now lost—she, Eros, has Packed cards with Caesar, and false-played my glory Unto an enemy’s triumph.

Nay, weep not, gentle Eros. There is left us Ourselves to end ourselves. (IV.xv.3–22) After Cleopatra’s ships abandon Antony in battle for the second time, the general faces the greatest defeat of his military career. Antony is accustomed only to victory, and his understanding of self leaves little room for defeat, either on the battlefield or in terms of love. As a Roman, Antony has a rigid perception of himself: he must live within the narrowly defined confines of the victor and hero or not live at all. Here, he complains to his trusted attendant, Eros, about the shifting of his identity. He feels himself helplessly changing, morphing from one man to another like a cloud that turns from a dragon to a bear to a lion as it moves across the sky. He tries desperately to cling to himself—”Here I am Antony”—but laments he “cannot hold this visible shape.” Left without military might or Cleopatra, Antony loses his sense of who he is. Rather than amend his identity to incorporate this loss, rather than become an Antony conquered, he chooses to end his life.

In the end, he clings to the image of himself as the unvanquished hero in order to achieve this last task: “[t]here is left us / Ourselves to end ourselves.” 5.

Question: From which Shakespeare play does the line "and age cannot wither" her come from?
Answer: ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA